Kansas City’s long shot vision for Downtown scores a bull’s-eye

I’ve asked my share — and probably a dozen other people’s, as well — of strange questions. But even I felt a bit odd four years ago when I called Clyde Wendel to ask whether he’d show me his office window.

His office, on the 14th floor of One Kansas City Place at the time, was only part of what I was looking for. I wanted Wendel, a top banking executive and big civic booster, to show me not just what he could see but also what he could foresee.

To the south and southeast was a great view of a dug-up piece of ground, a couple of surface parking lots and old buildings. But Wendel’s face brightened as he talked about the excitement of seeing crews do core sampling at what’s now the site of H&R Block Inc.’s headquarters and of plans for a new arena and entertainment district.

“In five years, I think I see a much more physically attractive Downtown, with green space, street activity, with people eating in open-air cafés,” he said.

Even with a year to go, Wendel’s call was pretty accurate.

It took imagination and no small share of wishful thinking to see a vibrant Downtown as we put together the first Block by Block special in 2004. There had been a few older buildings converted into lofts by then, and the new Kansas City Public Library had showed Downtown’s potential. But the big-ticket, transformative projects still existed only on architect’s plans and in artist’s renderings.

Now, Downtown has passed the tipping point. Sprint Center is a hive of activity on nights and weekends when it hosts big-name concerts and sporting events. The H&R Block building is filled with workers by day, and the attached Kansas City Repertory Theater is filled with theatergoers by night. The Kansas City Power & Light District, though not yet fully plugged in, claims more than 4.5 million visitors year to date.

Want more? Lights from new downtown residents illuminate the Professional Building, the refurbished (and renamed) 909 Walnut building and Wallstreet Tower. The Crossroads Arts District sports an array of restaurants and shops, and the funky, piece-at-a-time redevelopment that spawned it has drifted east of Grand Boulevard. The renovation of the River Market area continues to creep closer to the river. Bartle Hall has been spiffed up so that even its north dock has an artistic touch.

And there still are exciting things to come.

The biggest coming attraction is the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Architecturally, it very well may be the iconic visual symbol the city has lacked — our arch, if you will. Artistically, the venue will elevate the Kansas City Symphony, Lyric Opera and Kansas City Ballet in the same way a Stradivarius elevates the playing of a concert violinist.

But even the end of big construction projects won’t signal that Kansas City’s new Downtown is complete.

People in the metropolitan area need to learn to live with the new assets and amenities, to get comfortable with them. Downtown will be a true success when loft residents no longer are thought of as pioneers, when the Power & Light District is as much a place to spend a few hours shopping and strolling as it is a place to dine or party, when the surroundings become Downtown’s primary development incentive.

This will come in time. After all, envisioning sidewalk cafés and crowds where parking lots and partially used buildings stand is a lot more difficult than frequenting those cafés and walking the streets of a newly revitalized Downtown.